ADATA XPG SX900 SSD Conclusion

IMPORTANT: Although the rating and final score mentioned in this conclusion are made to be as objective as possible, please be advised that every author perceives these factors differently at various points in time. While we each do our best to ensure that all aspects of the product are considered, there are often times unforeseen market conditions and manufacturer changes which occur after publication that could render our rating obsolete. Please do not base any purchase solely on our conclusion, as it represents our product rating specifically for the product tested which may differ from future versions. Benchmark Reviews begins our conclusion with a short summary for each of the areas that we rate.

LSI/SandForce SSDs have had a huge impact on high-performance storage, but consumer's have never appreciated the 'over-provisioning' technology that reduced their capacity. Thanks to new firmware developments, companies like ADATA can now offer products that compete gigabyte-for-gigabyte with the competition. Not only are these SandForce-driven solid state drives extremely fast, but more importantly they're capable of SLC-level operational performance I/O and NAND durability. The ADATA XPG SX900-series builds from the powerful SandForce SF-2281 solid state processor, which brings innovation to the SSD industry by prolonging MLC NAND flash module lifetime and delivering RAID-like data redundancy.

Our performance rating considers how effective the ADATA XPG SX900 solid state drive performs in operations against direct competitor storage solutions. For reference, SandForce specifies the SF-2281 controller capable of 500 MB/s maximum read/write speeds, which ADATA increases to 550/530 MB/s read/write for uncompressed data and 510/320 MB/s read/write for compressed data on this 256GB model. In our storage benchmark tests, the 256GB ADATA XPG SX900 Solid State Drive performed at or above this speed, and competed with the fastest products previously tested. Our test results proved the ADATA SX900 was good for delivering 558/532 MBps peak read/writes speeds using ATTO Disk Benchmark. Linear testing with Everest Disk Benchmark produced 488/471 MB/s, placing the ADATA SX900 in the top three for SATA SSD results.

The retail kit (ASX900S3-256GM-C) that ADATA sent us for testing advertises up to 90,000 maximum combined IOPS, although it is unclear what tools were used to produce this figure. Using a SandForce-provided configuration for our own Iometer operational performance tests, we used a queue depth of 32 outstanding I/O's per target that measured 79,820 combined IOPS performance. In this test, the ADATA XPG SX900 SSD performed well and positioned itself among the highest-I/O products. In the 4K 32QD tests with AS-SSD and CrystalDiskMark, the ADATA XPG SX900 SSD continued to match up to enthusiast storage solutions like the OCZ Vertex 3 Max IOPS Edition. Considering the entry-level pricing attached to ADATA's XPG SX900 series, it performed more like competing premium-level storage products.

Solid State Drives are low-visibility products: you see them just long enough to install and then they're forgotten. Like their Hard Disk Drive counterparts, Solid State Drives are meant to place function before fashion. Anything above and beyond a simple metal shell is already more than what's expected in terms of the appearance. ADATA has created a back-to-basics look with the anodized black textured finish on their XPG SX900-series SSDs. As solid state storage controllers become faster and more advanced, heat dissipation through the enclosure walls may demand that chassis designs become more beneficial than they previously needed to be. This isn't the case yet, and a metal chassis suits SandForce SSDs nicely.

Construction is probably the strongest feature credited to the entire SSD product segment, and ADATA believes their XPG SX900-series is no exception. The ADATA XPG SX900 SSD is covered by a three-year limited warranty. ADATA recommends that you register your product to receive warranty support. Unfortunately, there are no online discussion forums/chat or local telephone service numbers available for technical support.

With so many SandForce products being physically identical to each another, the overall value tends to focus on price, warranty, and customer support. If you're price shopping, a quick stroll through our Storage Section reviews will reveal how other SSD options compare. As of September 2012, the ADATA XPG SX900 SSD is available online in the following capacities and prices:

During benchmark testing I noted that the performance results matched those of ultra-premium SSDs, yet ADATA's XPG SX900 series is presently among the least expensive solid state drives available in each capacity. For an entry-level price, consumers are getting a full upgrade kit with 2nd-generation LSI/SandForce SF-2281 SSD that performs among the fastest SATA-based storage solutions. On top of performance, you're also getting back 7% of the storage capacity previously 'lost' to provisioning. Together, these three reasons give the ADATA XPG SX900-series a formidable lead ahead of competing SSDs that lack speed, capacity, and price. I highly recommend the ADATA XPG SX900 Solid State Drive, as it's earned our Golden Tachometer Award for excellence.

Comments

I'm using a pair of SX900 on RAID 0 mode with my P8Z77-I Deluxe and it's a total pleasure.Maximum Read for seq. files is around 1,100 MB. I couldn't be happier. Before those, I had an Agility 2, and before Intel X-25M, G Skill Phoenix Pro and OCZ Agility 1.

They do have some outstanding sales at the Egg, but that's usually ~after~ I've spent all of my monthly mad money.I have an ADATA 120GB SATA-II SSD on my old i7-870 Lynnfield system that is still damn fast. I've had no problems with it and have been using it for a long time. The price was good when I bought it too.

Good to hear you found a bargain on SSDs in the Mushkin Chronos series. Unfortunately, Mushkin's marketing team is given very few product samples, and they only ship them to sites that give favorable reviews. We're not on the top of their list.

I have a SuperComputer(micro)Intel E7-8860 with 4 CPUS. I needed faster speeds for my VMs. In the VM world spindles are garbarge even in raid 0. Multitasking and opening up 10 in a row is now no problem. Easily detected in BIOS and configured 123 with external backup.

I use 10 VMs for algo development and replication of results in D:\ drive.

Smoked my OCZ Vertex 3 Badly which is fast and is my C drive... for now.

Note: install SSD with proper harddrive casing (if Raid)otherwise the 3 1/2" casing won't fit. Holes are off by 2cm. It will work in regular computer not in enterprise. The SSD were an exact fit of my Raptors so I was able to install it in hdcasing no problem. So far so good. All 5 drives tested ok. Also this is my first Adata purchase... never heard of them but I guess you all will. Fastttttttt.